Vinge is a real world, honest to goodness Computer Science
professor. His books are accurately
described as hard science fiction. This
story describes a later chapter in Pham Nuwen's life. Pham was part of the space faring group of
merchants, the Qeng Ho, benefiting from the time dilation effect of
interstellar travel. They did not know
they were trapped in the Slowness, a part of the universe where true faster
than light travel was impossible. This
story looks a a bigger slice of the universe where people can ascend or
transcend to a higher plane where technology becomes synonymous with
magic. Keeping in mind Arthur C. Clark's
admonishment that any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic
Ravena Bergsndot is a
librarian at Relay, a network node akin to DropBox on steroids. A repository and clearing house of data. Information is king and as a clearing house
Relay is paramount in it's neighborhood.
A perversion arises that threatens the known universe. Ravena
is partnered with Pham and they become shipmates of two plant people,
Geenstalk and Blueshell.
The shipmates dive into the
deeps of the Slowness watching their technology degrade to find a weapon to
battle the perversion and to incidentally rescue some children marooned there
through no fault of their own. Mixed
into this mélange of aliens, the shipmates meet pack mind folks who have woes
of their own.
Vinge has captured
multitasking in his story telling. The
stories culminate together and are tied up neatly.
I highly recommend it.
Fan Based web site: http://mindstalk.net/vinge/
/This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations.
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